Sleep disturbances
by Neko11
Summary: Dedicated to roo17. Luffy's quite restless, even in his sleep, and Ace, never getting enough sleep due to that, is pissed. But suddenly, Luffy is quiet and lay still while sleeping and Ace is irritated. He knows something must be bothering him. Enjoy :


**Hello everybody who decided to read this (and thanks for doing so :D)! This is a One-shot which I dedicate to roo17! ;D Hope you and everyone else enjoys this!~ **

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, it belongs to Oda-sensei! **

**YXYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYX**

**Sleep disturbances **

Ace grunted as he felt his brother's knee burying itself into his stomach. The eleven-years-old tried to ignore it and moved a little further away from the still fast asleep Luffy. Mentioned boy murmured something under his breath and smiled, drooling onto his blanket.

Ace rolled his eyes. He didn't have to be a genius to understand what Luffy was dreaming about. The little boy sighed in delight and turned around, oblivious to his surroundings.

'Geez, can't this brat lie still for five minutes? Honestly...' Ace shook his head, too tired to be really annoyed. He closed his eyes again.

Today had been really exhausting. He and Luffy had been training and fighting all day long in order to become stronger; due to that Ace was back in the world of dreams as soon as his head touched the pillow.

Four minutes later, he was woken by a tiny fist that hit his nose with surprising force. Immediately, Ace shot up, alarmed, but soon found himself growling in anger. Luffy had moved in his sleep and was beside him again, kicking and tossing around like usual. It got on Ace's nerves and made him wonder. Did Luffy even fight _in his sleep_? Ace's eye twitched.

"Seriously, if you think you'll be able to beat me with this cowardly tactic then YOU ARE MISTAKEN!" With that, the older of the two roughly shoved Luffy at least two meters away. In his anger, Ace forcefully threw a pillow after him.

Much to Ace's dismay, Luffy didn't wake up as the pillow hit him on the head. Instead, the eight-years-old continued to toss and turn around and kicked and hit the air without mercy. It made Ace wonder by what he'd be woken up next. By a fist to his eye? By a foot on his shin? Narrowing his eyes at Luffy, he lay a pillow over his groin, just to be safe.

'This will be a long night again', he thought, sighing heavily as he closed his eyes again.

But then, he couldn't really complain. Tonight was completely harmless compared to yesterday. Recently, Ace had discovered that Luffy obviously loved to talk in his sleep, and what he said made even less sense than usual. It caused Ace a headache _in_ _addition_ to the usual bruises he got with Luffy sleeping in the same room.

**~YXYXYX~**

The next day, their _beloved_ grandpa Garp came for a visit. Ace and Luffy were... speechless. If they had known Garp was coming, they would have hidden... but now it was too late.

After the usual 'greeting' (involving Garp, his infamous fist of love and two scared children), Garp went to see Dadan.

The two brothers seized this chance and fled to their tree house in the forest, not wanting to be forced to listen to Garp's lecturing. They both really liked their grandpa -he was family after all- but the old man had some weird point of view concerning pirates. He was the hero of the marine, so he hated the idea of his only grandsons becoming 'pirate scum'.

The rest of the day passed like usual. Ace tried to teach Luffy chess again. Ace was really stubborn, but eventually he gave up after six hours of explaining about the game. It was impossible to get something through Luffy's thick skull.

As they finally went to bed, Ace silently prayed he would be able to sleep through the night, just for once. The eleven-years-old knew it was a silly wish.

And again, Ace did wake in the middle of the night. But not because he got kicked or hit again. Ace blinked, blindly searching for a leg or an arm of his brother. Miraculously, he found Luffy were he last saw him: in his own bed. Apparently, Luffy hadn't moved all night.

Huh, that was strange. Did Luffy reach puberty or something? 'Nah,' Ace shook his head at that silly thought, 'he's just eight. And Luffy has always been a late bloomer.'

So, what happened? This was the first time Ace saw Luffy sleeping peacefully. Ace was so used to being kicked at night that he woke up because of the lack of it! Chuckling at that thought, the young boy stood up and made his way over to Luffy.

Before he reached him, Ace suddenly halted. Why did he even bother? Luffy just chose to sleep silently and without moving, so what? It was pretty normal to do so, why should he worry? Maybe he should just go back to bed and sleep without disturbances for once. This was his chance!

But Ace was still suspicious, and he quickly abandoned that thought. The fact that Luffy did something _normal_ made him worry. Luffy was the strangest child he'd ever seen, with all those crazy dreams and ambitions he had. Let alone the way he ate...! The brat inhaled more food than he did, and Ace was three years older! It still irritated Ace when he saw Luffy eating.

Looking at his little brother with narrowed eyes, Ace frowned slightly.

Luffy was always restless and never stood still, so of course he didn't sleep peacefully. It was only natural that he didn't act like normal persons would, Luffy was different. In a good way, but different nonetheless. That's why Ace had the best reason to be alarmed.

"Luffy? Luffy, wake up." Ace said, still frowning. It was a weird picture... if Luffy wasn't breathing, Ace would think he was dead. That gave him the creeps and he shook his brother harder. "C'mon, Luffy."

The eight-years-old stirred and groaned, turning around to blink up at his brother sleepily. "Huh? Ace? What's up? Did I wake you again?"

Ace smirked but quickly hid it behind his hand. So this brat knew he never let his poor big brother sleep properly!

Pushing that matter aside, Ace frowned again. "No, you didn't. I was just wondering if... ehm..."

What should he say now? The older brother had never been good with words and thought talking about problems was just for weaklings... until he met Luffy. Now Ace wanted to talk to his brother and figure out what was wrong but was at a loss of words. It was quite embarrassing.

"Yeah?" Luffy asked, blinking innocently.

Ace bit his lip. "Is something wrong?" There! He said it!

Luffy looked at him as if he had no clue what he was talking about. "What do you mean? I'm fine!" And to prove his point, Luffy flashed a grin. But the smile didn't reach his eyes and Ace saw right through him.

"Luffy, don't play dumb with me. Tell me what you have on your mind. Now." Ace muttered in a tone that suggested you better not refused his _request_.

Luffy gulped. "A-alright." His grin faded and Ace nearly didn't recognize him. Luffy and a sad look in his face seemed like a weird combination. It didn't fit. It made Ace even more willing to find the root of the problem and destroy it.

"W-well... when Gramps came to visit today, he beat us again..." Luffy said, avoiding Ace's eyes.

"Yes, so what? It was not the first time. Besides, he does beat us all the time, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, but it just makes me wonder... does he even consider us family?" Luffy asked, and looked at Ace with an unreadable expression. For a moment, the older one found himself at a loss of words for the second time this night. Ace had expected anything, but not that.

So this question had been bothering his little brother? At the moment, Ace was bothered by a question, too: How was he supposed to answer that?

"Why would you think that?" Ace tried to avoid the answer by asking a question himself. Like he said, he was not good at finding the right words, especially not about a sensitive subject like this.

"He never greets us by kissing, he only hits us." Luffy said. Ace gasped.

"You want Gramps to _kiss_ you?" Ace wanted to jump up and run away, but managed to fight that sudden urge. Strangely, Luffy looked equally shocked and gasped, too.

"NO! No way! Never! Ugh! Yikes!" Luffy frantically began to babble until Ace silenced him.

"So what's your problem, then?" he asked, trying to be patient.

"I don't want him to kiss me or anything... it's just that he never tells us things like 'I like you' like other grandpas do. Or give us hugs. So, I was wondering, does he even love us? All he does is hit us every time he comes for a visit!" Luffy said, frowning up at Ace.

"I-I see..." Ace stuttered. So that's what's been troubling Luffy. Ace was slightly surprised Luffy even though that far, he had clearly underestimated his brother.

Thinking of a proper explanation for their grandpa's weird behaviour, he scratched his head. Luffy waited patiently for an answer, looking at him with big eyes.

"Well, you see... Gramps is reeeeeeeally old! And I'm sure you've already noticed that Gramps seems a little... messed up in there?" At that, Ace pointed at his head and Luffy nodded vigorously.

"Right. And because of that, he thinks that his hits are just like, err, _kisses_." Ace cringed at the word.

Luffy's mouth formed an 'O'. "So that means every time he hits us, he gives us a kiss?"

Ace tried to smile but grimaced instead. "Uhm, yes. It's just Gramps' way of showing his love for us."

Luffy's face lit up. "I see! That makes sense! I'm glad!" He laughed. "Thanks Ace!"

Ace blushed and was grateful it was too dark for Luffy to notice. "N-no problem. But now it's time to get some sleep, or do you want to miss our training tomorrow?"

Luffy's eyes widened. "Of course not! Night, Ace!" And seconds later, Luffy was asleep again. Ace let out a sigh of relief. Hopefully, Luffy wouldn't ask such scary questions in future.

With that thought in mind, the eleven-years-old turned around and tried to fall asleep again. But just as he was about to drift off, he heard a strange sound. Opening his eyes and silently cursing, Ace sat up. The sound came from Luffy's direction... it took Ace a moment to realize his brother was actually crying. No way! Ace gulped and strained his ears.

Luffy emitted another sob and for a moment Ace didn't breathe. It was true! Luffy ...was crying! Didn't he explain about their Gramps before?

"Luffy, are you okay?" Luffy didn't answer, and Ace nearly grew frantic. Had he said something wrong? Had he somehow upset Luffy …? Or-

But his track of thoughts was roughly destroyed by his fast asleep brother. Luffy suddenly let out a spine-chilling howl, followed by a "Who the heck ate my meat again!"

And with that said, he turned around and hit Ace right into his face.

"Yep, he's fine."

Ace didn't know if he should laugh or cry.

**YXYXYXYXYXYXYXYX**

**Well, that's it! I think Luffy's not quite the peaceful sleeper unless he's injured, sick, or has something on his mind that's bothering him. ^^**

**Anyways, this was nothing special and really short, but I hope you, roo17, and everyone else had fun reading! :) If not, please tell me, criticism is fine and the only way for me to improve! **

**Reviews – negative and positive ones- are greatly appreciated~ :D **

**Neko11**


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